No Moses didn't die, but some people will weep as if he did. Charlton Heston was a very fine actor who backed some worthy causes (Civil Rights) and some unworthy causes (the NRA). Some people began to think that, later in life, Heston came to see himself as more of a Moses of the middle-lass white man. This is what he had to say:

"...the God fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle- class Protestant-or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern- or even worse, rural, apparently straight-or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owning-or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff-or even worse, male working stiff-because, not only don’t you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant, and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new-America and until you do, would you mind shutting up?"

He certainly followed the evangelical role in distancing himself from unpopular ideologies.*

Our earlier post about guns laid out some hypotheses that Heston would have disagreed with.

Here are some additional ones:

In 2004:

- 846 suicides involving young people 10-19 years old - and a significant amount of those were gay and lesbian teens.- Firearm homicide was the leading cause of death among young black males.

- The casualty rate for young people (19 and under) was one every three hours.

Happy 21st Amendment Day! This is one example of how difficult it is to legislate health and welfare by forcibly taking away something that we've enjoyed for thousands of years.

Help celebrate today - get wet responsibly

*In 1995, Heston denied a claim by Ben-Hur screenwriter Gore Vidal that there is a gay subtext to the film. Vidal says he wrote the script with such an implication, but never mentioned the subtext to Heston [though he did so to Stephen Boyd who played Ben-Hur's friend Messala].